A Far too many people still view social media as merely a fun distraction, but it can be a powerful tool for serious communication, especially for those looking for a new job. Whereas traditional job-hunting sites — Craigslist, Indeed and others — certainly have their place in any thorough employment search, leveraging your social media accounts is a great way to cover all the opportunities available.

Twitter is a great place to begin, because it's full of job offerings and networking pages. You just need to know where to look. Using the search bar, type in the terms that apply to jobs you're interested in, adding keywords such as "jobs" or "hiring." You can also narrow your search to a specific geographical location, and don't forget to use hashtags — such as #jobs or #hiring — as this will get you more results.

Facebook is obviously a great place to go as well, as pages are, in essence, places for engagement. Like as many pages as you can in the fields that interest you and read their daily updates for job openings. A word of caution with Facebook, however: make sure your work and education history is in order and looks sharp — especially in the newly added "Professional Skills" portion in the "About" section — as many potential employers will be checking out your profile.

LinkedIn is an obvious choice for any determined job hunter. It works much like Facebook, but with a more serious, business-like demeanor that's all about networking in professional sectors. You can connect to people who have jobs and careers that interest you, and you can search for opportunities near you. Also, there is a great section on member's stories, where LinkedIn users share their secrets of success, and a job board that covers openings in every field imaginable. Be sure to gather as many recommendations and endorsements from those whom you've worked with, as these will boost your appeal to potential employers who are 12 times more likely to view your profile if it's robust and extremely detailed with your personal work experience.

Q I'm in the process of building a website, and I want to make it user-friendly for people with disabilities. How do I go about doing so?

A Whether you want to make your site accommodating to those with physical, cognitive or sensory disabilities, there are lots of ways you can do it easily and efficiently.

To begin, use "alt tags," those words that pop up when you hover your mouse over an image. For people with visual impairments who use a screen reader (which reads text out loud), those alt tags are vocalized and let the reader know what image is there. You can make the alt tags read anything you like: for instance, if it's a picture of a person, write out the person's name. If it's an object, describe it with a few words.

For people with mobility problems, clicking on extremely small icons is difficult, so give all clickable items a wider range. For audiences with learning disabilities, keep your site copy simple, break it into small paragraphs (this is also useful for elderly persons) and keep the text simple and straightforward with the language in the active voice.

If you're embedding a link on a page, describe the link rather than just noting the reader should "click here." For instance, write out "to learn more about our services, click here," rather than just having the word "services" clickable.

For people with vision problems, avoid loud colors and instead keep your text white on a black background. Be especially wary of overusing yellow, blue or green as they are difficult to discern for the colorblind. And lastly, include a section on your site that describes all the ways your site is user-friendly for those with disabilities — it's a powerful way to spread easy tips on how others can improve their own accessibility.

Terry and Clarence Low are co-founders of Byte Technology, a web design firm based in Monterey, Denver and Minneapolis. Their personal technology column appears on alternating Saturdays. Read more news on their blog at www.byte-technology.com/blog. Send questions to tlow@byte-technology.com, or write to Bits 'N' Bytes, 400 Camino El Estero, Monterey 93940.